1st Party Feat Changes
The following changes are made to how certain Paizo feats work in Skyholm. Feat Taxes The following feat taxes are in effect. Weapon Finesse Gone. The “light weapons” category has been renamed to “finesse weapons.” Characters can choose to use either their dexterity bonus or their strength bonus to hit with these weapons, no feat required. “Finesse” is also now a weapon attribute like “brace” or “trip,” allowing a weapon in another category to be finessed (like the rapier). Weapon Finesse is the ultimate feat tax. It’s begrudgingly mandatory for most rogues, specifically two-weapon fighting builds. I understand Paizo worries that dexterity might become an uber stat, but weapon finesse still doesn’t grant a damage bonus. It’s really the only thing rogue’s have to compensate for their lackluster BAB. Agile Maneuvers Gone. A character adds their dexterity to the CMB if they’re wielding a finesse weapon and their strength otherwise. This goes hand and hand with the previous change. Making combat maneuvers more accessible will be a recurring theme of this article. Power Attack Gone. Now simply a combat option for any class with at least +1 BAB. Power Attack is too useful to be a feat. It’s the first feat taken by any character with the strength and BAB to abuse it and likely ranks as the single most popular feat in Pathfinder. Turning it into a combat option available to anyone with at least +1 BAB is a reasonable change and still stalls caster and hybrid classes from grabbing specialized combat feats too early. Deadly Aim Gone. Now simple a combat option for any class with at least +1 BAB. Like Power Attack, Deadly Aim is another mandatory feat that should be available to everyone. It takes a high BAB to abuse Deadly Aim, so I’m not overly concerned about the change throwing a wrench into class balance. Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, Improved Dirty Trick, Improved Feint, Improved Reposition, Improved Steal Gone. Replaced with Deft Maneuvers. Deft Maneuvers New. You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing a trip, disarm, dirty trick, feint, reposition, or steal combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus on checks with these combat maneuvers. Now a prerequisite for the relevant greater combat maneuver feats. Why is it so hard to pull off combat maneuvers in this game? It seems like you need three feats before you can attempt to trip someone without impaling yourself on your own polearm. Eliminating Combat Expertise as a prerequisite and wrapping up all these improved combat maneuver feats into a single package simplifies things. It would prevent fighters from being stonewalled if a monster is immune to their combat maneuver of choice and make the feats much more attractive to feat-starved classes. Improved Bull Rush, Improved Drag, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder Gone. Replaced with Powerful Maneuvers. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting Gone. Merged with Greater Two-Weapon Fighting Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (Combat) You are skilled at fighting with two weapons. Prerequisites: Dex 15, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +6. Benefit: In addition to the standard single extra attack you get with an off-hand weapon, you get a second attack with it, albeit at a -5 penalty. Once your BAB reaches +11, you also gain a third attack with your off-hand weapon, albeit at a -10 penalty. Normal: Without this feat, you can only get a single extra attack with an off-hand weapon. Point-Blank Shot Gone. Precise Shot replaces it as a prerequisite for further archery feats. I like Point-Blank Shot, but Precise Shot is the real breadwinner for any ranged build. It’s the one trick every archer wants out of the gate and the one combat feat many wizards and sorcerers would love to cherry pick to aid their ray spells. The loss of Point-Blank Shot can easily be compensated for by Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization, but it’s not like archery builds are hurting anyhow. Powerful Maneuvers New. You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing a bull rush, drag, overrun, or sunder combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus on checks with these combat maneuvers. Now a prerequisite for the relevant greater combat maneuver feats. The same deal as Deft Maneuvers. More combat maneuvers at a lower feat investment is just a good idea all around. Mobility Gone. Merged with Dodge. Dodge Revised. You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. This bonus increases to +4 against attacks of opportunity caused when you move out of or within a threatened tile. A condition that makes you lose your Dex bonus to AC also makes you lose the benefits of this feat. Spring Attack isn’t a great feat, but it lends itself to interesting builds. Unfortunately, the prerequisites of Dodge and Mobility are often too much for a player to stomach. Merging these feats makes Spring Attack more accessible and subsequently transforms two mediocre feats into a single spectacular one. Double Slice Only works with melee weapons. Eschew Materials Any class or feature that grants Eschew Materials as a bonus feat instead grants any bonus feat that the character would otherwise qualify for. Eschew Materials has also been subsumed into Eschew Esoteric Materials. Use Eschew Esoteric Materials in place of Eschew Materials for all purposes. Faction Feats Since we don't utilize the same Prestige Awards system the prerequisites to these feats are normally unobtainable. Instead, these can be met with the Reputation and Fame system. You qualifying as having 10 TPA in a faction if you have the Initiate title; 15 if you have the Officer title; 20 if you have the Commander title; and 25 if you have the High Commander title. Gold Modifying Traits Roleplay Point purchases are added after traits that modify starting gold. So a trait that doubles your starting gold (such as Duskwalker Agent) would just grant a bonus 300 gp, even if you purchased the Extra Starting Gold item multiple times. Achievement Feats You are expected to track when and where you earned your progression in the downtime channel, and get GM confirmation for progression from sessions. Contact a GM or Staff before taking such a feat for confirmation. Healer's Touch This feat's prerequisite and benefits apply to all forms of healing, not just spells (e.g. Channel Energy, the Heal Skill, etc.). Leadership Every 2 cohorts you have among all of your characters take up 1 of your character slots. If you do not have enough character slots for all of your cohorts, some of the cohorts are unavailable until you’ve gained another character slot. When a character gains the Leadership feat they can attract a level 1 cohort (although there are ways to attract a more powerful cohort; see below). Cohorts cannot Earn Gold as a Downtime action. Cohorts may freely offer spellcasting services, and cast spells as part of Downtime. (Spells with a casting time greater than 30 mins count as double the time for a cohorts Downtime As a full day action Cohorts may manage a business or organization owned by them or their respective PC, aid in crafting, cast 1 fabricate or offer other class feature services. As a Full week action Cohorts may perform 1 day of Craft (following the same rules PCs are otherwise subject to), Earn Xp, or Hunt a Monster their ECL/CR or lower. You may also RP to give them templates (following the normal rules for acquiring templates). A cohort's ECL may not exceed 2 less than your ECL. They are allowed to Earn XP so long as they follow the above restrictions. If a cohort owns a business, add the bonuses from that business to those of the character with the leadership feat that attracted them (they don't get to make their own rolls). Cohorts may attend sessions on their own to catch up experience, again subject to the above restrictions. The maximum cohort level continues past 18 if you are at a high enough level. A Leadership score of 27 is required to have a 19th level cohort, and 28 for a 20th level (you must be 20th level for this). The starting gold of your cohort is equal to the wealth by level of an equivalent PC. You may attract a higher starting level cohort by purchasing the option in the RP shop. A given character can only have 1 cohort at a time. Class features that grant extra cohorts do not grant these. Ask a GM how to handle things if you want to take an archetype that would give you multiple cohorts. If you find some way to make followers useful (such as through witch shenanigans) other than building and capital earning purposes and press the point or execute on it you will be warned, banned from taking Leadership, and potentially banned for powergaming. Leadership score bonuses and penalties * You count as having a special ability (c’mon, you’re PC has to be level 7 so of course they have special abilities). * You have great renown when you achieve 30 fame (or if you purchase the Nobility item with RP). * If you have a building with at least 3 rooms you count as having a stronghold/guild house/base of operations. * Phantoms and Eiodilons cause the -2 penalty due to having a familiar, special mount, or animal companion. * You receive the "moves around a lot" penalty if you lose one of your businesses due to absence. This penalty goes away when you reassert yourself as the owner, or when you've built another building after abandoning all claim. Magical Tail (Kitsune) A kitsune who has taken the keen kistune alternate racial trait uses their Intelligence instead of Charisma to determine the DCs of the spell-like abilities gained through the Magical Tail feat. Master Craftsman This feat can be used to qualify for feats that have Craft Magical Arms and Armor or Craft Wondrous Item as prerequisites. In addition, Craft Shadow Piercing and Craft Magical Tattoo can be taken as well, but a character is still limited to crafting only shadow piercing or magical tattoo versions of wondrous items (as detailed in the feat's description; not rings or other magical item types). Ooze Whisperer Replace the benefit of this feat with the following: Benefit: You may target oozes with spells and special abilities as though they were animals with a 1 intelligence (although they are still affected by spells targeting oozes as well) But with a +4 to their saving throws. You may use wild empathy to influence oozes as easily as you influence magical beasts with Intelligence 1. Stunning Interruption Replace the feat's standard benefits and prerequisites with the following: Prerequisite(s): Base Attack Bonus +5. (Fighter? It could become fighter-only to accommodate for the boost in effectiveness if balance deems it appropriate) Benefit(s): You can attempt to break through a door, window, or wall to enter a room with a stunning abruptness.( A Stunning Interruption can be attempted even after combat has began, so long as any target's are unaware of the breacher's location prior to the interruption) If you succeed, the violence of your arrival is so great that all enemies within 20 feet of your entry point must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 HD + STR or DEX) or be stunned instead of acting in the surprise round (if there is one) plus 1 round thereafter. Characters who succeed at this save are instead shaken for 1d4 rounds. Two-Weapon Fighting Creatures capable of casting spells or that have class features that grant 4 or more arms can use two weapon fighting with two-handed weapons. Offhand weapons deal 1/2 Strength on damage, or 1 1/2 Strength with Double Slice and the weapon is a two-handed weapon. Using a magic item to gain additional limbs (such as a staff of monstrous physique III) does not grant the ability to dual wield two-handed weapons. Two Weapon Rend Only works on melee weapons. Vermin Heart Replace the benefit of this feat with the following: Benefit: You may target vermin with spells and special abilities as though they were animals with a 1 intelligence (although they are still affected by spells targeting vermin as well) But with a +4 to their saving throws. You may use wild empathy to influence vermin as easily as you influence magical beasts with Intelligence 1. Versatile Channeler Change the prerequisites to the following. Prerequisites: Channel energy class feature, Neutral and worshipping a Neutral Deity, or not worshipping any Deity Category:1st party changes